Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Kwanza and Everybody Else

Wow. I just realized that I haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving. Have to admit that the shorter days and the colder weather tend to drain my limited resources. Now that the days are getting longer and the "Holidays" are almost over I am looking forward to having more energy to funnel toward continuing the fight against corporate governance, political malfeasance, and not forgetting to have a little fun. Geeze, I didn't even have a post for Zappadan this year.

Anyway - here is my favorite Christmas Story, "A Wish for Wings that Work" by Berkley Breathed. In the 80's Bloom County was a staple of my daily comics page, bringing the Reagan years into a budding progressive's perspective - poking the bear from time to time. Then I saw this Charlie Brown style cartoon special which I think only aired once, not because it wasn't good, it was GREAT but it was too subtle for the general public and offended many with the adult nature of the art, dialogue and characters. Please take a few minutes and check it out and you'll see why it only aired once. I think the "cross-dressing cockroaches in crisis" line may have done the trick. Or it could have been Truffles the Pig who thinks he's a rinoceros accusing Bill the Cat of snorting "Little Friskies". Those are not lines that you will hear in many Christmas specials and there are many more excellent lines in there. One has to watch for the cool little effects like a guy in a picture yawning and listen for the subtle ironies that Breathed is so good at pointing out. Spoiler Alert: Opus the Penguin does indeed save Christmas. So sit back with the favorite beverage of your choice, maybe something leafy as well and enjoy. Seriously, this is very well done.